1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to theater seating, and more particularly to theater seating incorporating movement related to media.
2. Background and Related Art
One way in which the passive entertainment industry has been enhanced has been through the incorporation of motion into the entertainment, most particularly with respect to viewing movies. The manners in which movement has been incorporated have varied, but have tended to be complex. For example, in the theme park industry, movement may be provided by providing seating in a mock-up of a vehicle. Participants enter the mock-up and then view an audiovisual presentation. During the presentation, the entire mock-up is subjected to small and large-scale movement, such as with a hydraulic system, thereby simulating what might be experienced in an actual vehicle (often in a dangerous situation). While such systems are entertaining, they are typically not cost effective enough to spread much outside of the theme park setting.
In the movie theater setting, similar principles can be achieved with seating mounted on moveable platforms. Alternatively, hydraulic or other actuators can be provided individually to each seat. While such systems are still expensive, the range of motion of such systems is typically smaller and easier to implement, and the motion provided can greatly enhance theatergoers' experience while watching the movies. One significant problem with such systems is that they must be specially programmed to respond to each movie for which motion is desired, which is a time-consuming process. Additionally, the person programming the movement must guess the motions that will be pleasing to the moviegoers, even though personal preferences vary from person to person, even to the extent that certain moviegoers may not want any motion at all but may be unable to select movement-free seats in an all-motion theater.
Not only must the movement be specifically programmed for each feature, but the programmed movement must be carefully synchronized with the movie or the movement will detract from the experience rather than adding to it. Therefore, many systems rely on programming that is performed by the movie studio and is thus part of, for example, the movie reel. The advent of all-digital movie projection systems may reduce the synchronization concern somewhat, but the fact remains that given the expense and difficulty of programming each movie, such programming is performed for relatively few movies. Therefore, the expensive motion features incorporated into the theater seating often go unused.
Attempts have been made to avoid the programming issue using systems that provide motion to a theater seat based on bass components of a movie's soundtrack. Such systems have been found advantageous in that they are able to provide movement to essentially any movie without requiring that special programming be performed to generate the motion. Such systems, however, have significant disadvantages. For example, the systems are typically only able to provide motion in response to low-frequency sounds: motion may be felt in response to low-frequency sounds where it may be desirable to have no motion (such as low-frequency voices), and motion may be missing at times where motion is desirable even though no low-frequency sounds are present. Finally, the low-frequency noise commonly generated from such systems as part of the motion generation can detract from the normal movie audio experience.